Back in the sixties, Stan Lee hit upon a new idea. Superheroes that lived and interacted in the same universe. Sure, there was the Justice Society and Justice League, but the Marvel Universe was interconnected. Reed Richards read the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker could visit Matt Murdock for legal advice, Bruce Banner could work alongside Charles Xavier. Prior to this, only the occasional team-up would occur and characters largely existed independently of others. Nearly 50 years later, along came Iron Man.

With the meta as hell statement that “you’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet,” we are thrown into a world where super-science, super-soldiers, nuclear spawned monsters and gods could conceivably live and work together. Yes, each movie can quite easily be taken entirely on its own merits; it’s when we view them together that it really starts to shine. There is a legendary 9 hour fan-edit that combines all the movies prior to Avengers into one chronological whole. There’s a lot of love and a lot of effort put in to making this universe cohesive, and it works.

What’s really surprising is how long it took for someone to come up with it. For the past number of years, Hollywood’s focus was on a franchise. You can’t make one movie and move on to something else; you needed a sequel or two. Here, you have a self-sustaining and unending series of stories that need never end. If Iron Man tanks, it’s okay, throw in a hook to something that (hopefully) will do better. And if Iron Man doesn’t tank and is quite successful, then you’re associating the next movie with something that already did well. And each link points to something bigger. Iron Man and Hulk set up the bigger universe. Thor brought in the cosmic aspect. Captain America was the final piece. And it led to The Avengers, which then set up Thanos and the cosmic side of things. Next up, we have The Guardians of the Galaxy. Think space Avengers, with a trash-talking racoon.

And it’s not just cinema. Joss Whedon is currently working on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a tv series set in the larger universe and starring Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, who appeared in almost every Marvel movie so far. How he will be appearing here after his apparent death in Avengers remains to be seen. Other cast includes Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge and J. August Richards. This is all spearheaded by Disney. It’s aggressive, it’s fast, and it has big names and serious money to throw around.

Meanwhile, DC have been doing shared universes longer, from the animated series’ to Smallville, but it was content to allow each hero to inhabit their own live-action cinematic universe. The DC animated universe (DCAU) ran from 1992-2006, across tv, internet, books, video games, comics and one theatrical release, The Mask of the Phantasm. Again, all the rights were owned by one company, Warner, which allowed much greater freedom compared to Marvel and its pick and choose ownership of different characters. For many, the DCAU is DC comics. It’s the best representation of different characters and it’s pure, simple superheroics.

Smallville had a similar universe,with a Justice League, a Daily Planet, a Star City, a Metropolis, but it ultimately revolves around Clark and his life. It’s bizarre how sci-fi it became towards the end. It started as a pretty standard teen high school drama, where Clark had troubles with the football captain, and ended with a corpse from another universe reanimated by an alien god. When it started, high school drama was the order of the day, but as it progressed, tastes changed. Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, among many others, made sci-fi cool. And superheroes are gifted with the ability to change with the audience taste. Smallville was perfectly placed for the change.

Due to financial difficulties in the 80’s and 90’s, the cinematic rights to Marvel characters were all sold to different movie studios. With Disney’s backing, many of those have been reclaimed. Obviously, the big one, Spider-Man, is still held by Sony and Fox still hold the rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men, and they have no intention of letting go.  The next Fantastic Four movie will apparently be in the same universe as the X-Men. But the rest all belong to Marvel. DC fared a great deal better. Having been bought by Warner Bros., all their characters belong to one company, which led to the DC animated universe, a shared universe where Batman, Superman and more worked side by side.

In the animated universes of both Marvel and DC, crossovers occurred. Superman could replace a sick or missing Batman, the Hulk could turn to the Fantastic Four for help. But in the live action tv series and movies, other characters didn’t exist. Cities were mentioned, especially Gotham, but until Smallville began introducing the Flash, Green Arrow and more, live-action superheroes would stand alone. Smallville featured the first major team-ups between live-action superheroes, culiminating in the tv movie Absolute Justice, where not one but two superteams fought against a shadowy conspiracy. But it wasn’t until the end of Iron Man that the world really started paying attention. “I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative.”

Based on the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner understandably wants to get in on the action. Superhero stories can (and should be able to) stand on their own, but with an entire universe, you can get the whole cake instead of just a slice. The Man of Steel is rumored to be the first step towards such a universe (read Genesis of the Man of Steel here).

It’s not like DC or Warner are new to such an undertaking, but besides Batman, they haven’t had a major hit in a while. People are interested in superheroes, and there are all kinds of genres that could be explored. A heist movie with supervillains. Found footage. Conspiracy thrillers. Horror, sci-fi, family. Superheroes should be treated as an ingredient, not a genre. Lee knew this when he created a superhero that was a lonely kid. Spider-Man didn’t draw fans because he punched bad guys, but because he was lonely and struggling with what to do with his life, something any teenager (and many adults) can identify with. Nolan’s Bat-movies are not superhero movies. Begins and Dark Knight are crime/noir films, while Rises is closer to a disaster film. Superheroes take natural emotions and ramp them up tenfold. That’s the difference between a movie with a superhero and a similar movie in the same genre, the dials go to 11.

Upcoming superhero movies include Iron Man 3, The Man of Steel,  The Wolverine, Kick-Ass 2, and Thor: The Dark World, with Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier, Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Guardians of the Galaxy due in 2014. Spider-Man is still the property of Sony and so we won’t be seeing him working alongside anyone else for a good long time yet. Read our review of the first movie here. A Fantastic Four reboot sharing the X-Men universe is due in 2015.

So, what started with a man held hostage by terrorists is now leading to a shrinking scientist, mystic archers and alien warlords in love with death. Who would have thought a movie where Batista fights aliens alongside a talking tree could be considered potential box-office gold? But here we are. It’s a brave new world.

Not quite as brave as Patton Oswalt’s pitch for Star Wars VII, featuring Robot Chewbacca fighting Wolverine, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BBhNkywMJY) but almost.

-Donal O’Connor